The future King George IV was a bigamist in the eyes of many, including his first wife. In 1785 he married Maria Fitzherbert, knowing her Catholicism would disqualify him from assuming the throne.

James Gillray’s political cartoon of the wedding to

Mrs. Fitzherbert, 1787

Ten years later, ridiculously in debt, he agreed to wed a Protestant princess from a German state, the traditional source of Hanoverian brides, hoping that grateful parents and Parliament would increase his allowances. Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was chosen and ferried with great pomp to England by a fleet of British Navy ships (on one of which sailed Frank Austen.)

James Gillray, The Morning of the Marriage, 1795

The miserable royal union began in 1795. George immediately showed contempt for his bride. Historians have blamed her grooming, her conversation and her taste for German jokes for the failure of their marriage, but the problem was George's legendary irresponsibility and fickleness.

Caroline's Choice by Bettina Havig

Nine months after the honeymoon Caroline gave birth to the necessary heir, Princess Charlotte Augusta.

Court scandals inspired much newspaper copy and conversation. The Austen girls and their friends would have been particularly interested because the royal honeymoon was spent at Kempshot House, about five miles from Steventon Rectory.

George, the Prince of Wales, rented Kempshot House as a Hunting Lodge and spent much time with Mrs. Fitzherbert here before bringing Princess Caroline for their honeymoon.

After the honeymoon fiasco, the Prince let the lease go. Other aristocrats moved in and issued invitations to the Austens for balls and hunting, so the family knew the house well.

James Gillray, “Left with the Baby,”

cartoon sympathetic to the new Princess

Prince George’s treatment of his wife and his daughter provided gossip for the rest of Jane Austen’s life.

Princess Caroline and her rumored Italian lover.

Cartoonists loved to lampoon her fashion and figure as she aged.

Caroline moved to Italy providing scandals of her own. Jane took sides, writing to Martha Lloyd in 1813.

“Poor woman, I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman, & because I hate her Husband — but I can hardly forgive her for calling herself ’attached & affectionate” to [the Prince] a Man whom she must detest….If I must give up the Princess, I am resolved at least always to think that she would have been respectable, if the Prince had behaved only tolerably by her at first.”

The feuding couple by Cruickshank

After Jane’s death in 1817 relations between the royal couple deteriorated to new lows. King George IV tried unsuccessfully to bring a suit for divorce and refused to allow Queen Caroline to attend his 1821 coronation, encouraging more hostility from his subjects.

This monochromatic panel celebrating “Her Most Gracious Majesty, Caroline Queen of England’ was probably printed in 1820-21 when the new King was denying his wife her position.

Caroline's Choice by Dustin Cecil. Dustin changed the shading to get a different look.

Caroline’s Choice

Blockbase #1026.5

Queen Caroline died mysteriously and conveniently three weeks after the Coronation at the age of 53. The “poor woman” really had very little control over the important choices in her life such as marriage and raising her daughter, but she did choose to live independently. Caroline’s Choice was given the name by the Nancy Cabot column in the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s. The block is similar to the design in the period quilt above.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Many of you have notified me that you are not getting the email notifications for this blog. It's nice to get the information in your email box rather than just checking in once a week.

I have been looking for a solution to the problem. I have several blogs and this, I think, is the only one that is giving us problems. The email subscriptions are handled by something called Feedburner. I did find information from Feedburner Help Group. It says the blog posts have to be under a certain size to be processed. I have thought mine were under that limit but I see the advice is to never copy your blog text from a word file.

I always copy my blog text from word files.

"You haven't, Miss Austen, been pasting

text from Word files!"

Apparently this adds too much formatting, which adds size. I will reformat the next post and hope that works.

I subscribe by email myself so I will see if I get a notice next week on the new post.

If you have been peeved by missing emails I hope you get one next week. Do let me know in the comments or email me at MaterialCult@gmail.com

As for my reprehensible habit of copying text from Word files---it's going to be a hard habit to break.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

The Reverend James Stanier Clarke was a link between Jane
Austen and the Prince Regent. Clarke was Naval Chaplain on the H.M.S. Jupiter,
the ship that brought the Regent’s German fiancé to England in 1795. (Jane’s
brother Frank Austen was also in that fleet on another ship.) Twenty years
later we find Clarke as librarian (and
perhaps chaplain) to the Prince Regent, issuing an invitation to Jane Austen to
visit Carlton House and tour the library.

Carlton House was the
Prince Regent’s residence,

torn down after he built Buckingham Palace while King
George IV.

Lend and Borrow by Becky Brown

In Jane Austen’s England women often wrote anonymously and
Jane’s books were authored “By a Lady,” Brother Henry had a hard time keeping Jane’s
growing literary fame a secret. When he was recovering from a serious illness,
so serious the royal family’s physician had been called in to consult, Henry
bragged about his sister as the author of Pride
and Prejudice. The physician apparently told the Regent and the Regent
asked his librarian to invite the lady to the palace and request she dedicate her next book to her sovereign.

Illustration of a bookshop from Dr. Syntax.

It’s hard to believe the Prince Regent
actually read the books

he collected but he seems to have enjoyed Jane’s books
so

much he kept copies at each royal residence.

Jane’s personal views of the Regent were irrelevant. She did
as she was asked and Emma has a royal
dedication.

Emma was, like Jane’s
earlier books, published as a series.

Readers subscribed to the series by paying
ahead

and subsidizing the printing costs.

Jane and Clarke continued a correspondence after her visit
and he has earned a pompous reputation for requesting that she write a book
based on his experiences. She declined but for her family wrote a short satirical Plan of a Novel based on unsolicited
advice from her readers.

The Reverend Mr.
Clarke seems to be Jane’s fictional

Reverend Mr. Collins come to life.

BlockBase #3166

We can remember Rev. Clarke and Jane’s brush with royalty in
Lend and Borrow, the perfect block for a librarian, given the name by the
magazine The Woman’s World about
1930.

Cutting a 12” Block

A - Cut 9 squares 3-1/4” (5 light
and 4 light). Cut each in half with a
diagonal cut to make 2 triangles.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Romantic marriages were not the norm in Jane Austen’s
England, where class, family, money and social standing motivated upperclass
mothers to settle their daughters in a family saturated in wealth or titles.

Vintage Embroidered picture

Faded gentry like the
Austens had less lofty goals. A good home was an attractive trade, personified
in the character of Charlotte Lucas who marries Mr. Collins in Pride
and Prejudice.

Jane came close to making a similar trade when she accepted the
proposal of Harris Bigg-Wither, younger brother of her friends Alathea and
Catherine Bigg. While spending a winter holiday with the family at
their estate Manydown Park, almost-27-year-old Jane received a proposal from 21-year-old
Mr. Bigg-Wither, heir to the estate. With that proposal came promise of a
secure future, a mansion and a respected place in local society. Jane accepted.

Jane often visited her childhood friends at

Manydown Park. Illustration
by Ellen Hill.

…And immediately had
second thoughts. It may have been his youth and unromantic demeanor, but I like to think that she realized she would also be trading independence for the
conventional status of helpmeet, mother, hostess, and femme covert, a covered woman with no legal rights.

Jane was quite familiar with the strict social rules for engagements
and proposals. Her novels are based on the prevailing standards of romance,
love and propriety. A woman might never declare her feelings first. The man had
the right to declare his love or admiration and ask for her hand. She had the right to refuse gracefully.

Illustration for Northanger Abbey by Charles E. Brock

Henry Tilney in Northanger
Abbey compares marriage to dancing: “In both, man has the advantage of
choice, woman only the power of refusal.”

Crossroads by Dustin Cecil

Jane’s acceptance and then rejection was right on the edge of
propriety. Women were permitted to change their minds without
completely ruining their reputations. Men breaking engagements could be considered
a cad and sued for “breach of promise.”

The whole matter was mortifying. Jane’s social faux-pas
forced her to cut her visit short. She and Cassandra hurried back to Steventon,
a few miles away, and then on to their home in Bath.

Fashion Plate 1808

Mr. Bigg-Wither’s sisters were miffed about the broken
engagement but the long-term friendship revived after a cool period between the families. Two years
after Jane rejected Mr. Bigg-Wither he married another woman. Alathea and
Catherine moved household to Winchester and were very kind when Jane was afflicted by her last illness, helping her
find a place to stay near her doctor in the larger city.

BlockBase #1963

Crossroads by Bettina Havig

Crossroads, an old pattern given the name by the Needlecraft
Supply Company in 1938, can represent Harris Bigg-Wither’s proposal and Jane’s
night of indecision. At this crossroads she
again chose an independent path.

Cutting a 12” Block

A - Cut 4 squares 5”.

B - Cut 12 squares 2-3/8”. Cut
each in half with a diagonal cut to make 2 triangles.

Sources for the Illustrations

See more about where I found the illustrations by clicking on the artist. Many of the actual objects are in the collection of Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton.

Books: Austen Biographies, History and Analysis

Below are a few of the books referenced in the posts.

Claire TomalinJane Austen: A Life

John MullanWhat Matters in Jane Austen

Paula Bryant The Real Jane Austen

Deirdre Le Faye Jane Austen: A Family Record

Deirdre Le Faye Jane Austen's Letters

Deirdre le Faye Jane Austen's Outlandish Cousin

BY A LADY

About the author: Barbara Brackman is an American who loves to read about the regency period. She knows a lot about American quilt patterns and will defer to Austen experts. Click on the portrait to see her main blog: